The Final Word On Deficit

May 04, 1986|By John T. Scally, a Park Forest resident, is a retired accountant.

Enough is enough! Let this be the final word on the word ``deficit.`` For the past five years, reams of newspaper print, and thousands of words from radio and television commentators have belabored us with the one idea that the budget and the deficit are the main concern of 200 million Americans. Why, I ask.

And the answer is very evident. Economists, columnists, intellectuals, and anyone else who would like to grasp one subject and beat it to death, are all ready to expound on the subject.

When I was in school in the `30s, the cry was similar, but the words were different. I can recall the publisher of this newspaper, Col. Robert R. McCormick, and other conservatives decrying the ``big spenders.`` The word deficit was not used. It was always how ``the spend-thrifts in Washington would someday ruin this country.`` And yet today, where are we?

We have survived a Depression, several wars, recessions periodically, assassinations and tragedies. But the country is stronger today than ever

--through all the years we have had ``deficits`` in government. But the administrations and Congresses, both Democrat and Republican, have had the foresight to know what is best for America.

The programs of welfare, Medicaid, school lunches, aid to families with dependent children, school and college assistance, Social Security, unemployment compensation, and veterans benefits, are just a few that wise and good mean found very necessary to this country`s well-being.

And those presidents and Congresses did not raise the ax because of the word ``deficit.``

Today there are men and women who would undo all of this work. And they are members of both parties. It is very easy to succumb to the rhetoric of the press and radio and TV journalists, some who were not even born when such humanitarian programs were initiated. But let us all remember that just as

``the poor are always with us,`` so the deficits will always be with us.

And it is not the end. The economy has grown, unemployment is down, interest rates are down, and most important of all is the fact that all the economists, journalists and newsmen still have very good jobs. Perhaps, just perhaps their articles are spurred on by a fear that any aid to those less fortunate might somehow infringe on those more affluent; therefore, cut the programs that might be the cause.

Those who need help and look to the federal government for assistance are in the millions; those who by their writings and discussions criticize such aid are few. Let us close the book on the word ``deficit,`` and get on with running the country, at least as well as those who went before. Their`s was the vision, the compassion and the right choice for millions of Americans.